Vault

Each gymnast hit their routines without big mistakes, so their Start Value decided the outcome. Japanese girls suffered from low SV for their second vaults, but the top three gymnasts were good in this event and they had high SV and great skills. Eventually, Zamolodchikova, the champion of the Sydney Olympics and 2002 Worlds, beat Petrovschi and Kvasha. Zamolodchikova's performance had not changed since the Sydney Olympics, but she was injured before the 2001 Worlds and we had worried about her recovery. At this time, she seemed to be OK. Petrovschi showed a double twisting Yurchenko and layout (or piked?) Podkopaeva, but her landing and execution could not put her over Zamolodchikova. Kvasha hit her first vault (front handspring full twisting layout front) but her landing was little low and she could not catch up to the others.

Uneven Parallel Bars

The silver medalist of the last Worlds, Petrovschi, won this event as expected. "I did my best to prevent it from being said that uneven bars was not a good event for Rumania." --- Her performance was not "typical " Rumanian style but had very exact execution throughout. Zamolodchikova received second with a steady performance. Ban earned third. Russia's Ejova, expected to do battle with Petrovschi, fell on her handstand on low bar and crashed on her dismount, too.

Balance Beam

Ejova won this event with a clean but very difficult routine. This victory was worthy considering that she injured her knee and was not in shape. Zamolodchikova hit the part that she missed at the all-around, and got her second silver medal, followed by Petrovschi. The bronze medalist at the 2002 Worlds, Ban, did not show her highlight "full-twisting tucked back somersault" and finished fourth.

Floor Exercise

Kvasha won the first gold medal for Ukraine in this meet. She showed her great presence on this event at the European Championships this year. Zamolodchikova was better than yesterday, but she stepped out of bounds again in the very same part of her routine. This deduction cost her the win. Petrovschi was also better than yesterday, especially in her triple twist, and earned third.

FLOOR

Podgorny (Russia) was very strong on his tumbling, but he repeated the mistakes that he had made yesterday; he underrotated his double front on his second pass (layout front with full twist - layout front - double front), but he could score 9.300. Kasamatsu stuck his almost all of his tumbling passes, but the landing of his dismount (two and a half twist to punch front) was a little low; however, he could tie Podgorny. The final performer, Kashima, executed his tumbling beautifully, and especially the Gogolaze to Fedorchenko combination that is the best part of his routine. Kim Seung-Il suffered from injuries (Achilles tendon and wrist) but his performance was worse than that of yesterday, and he could not show his potential to the Japanese fans. However, we applaud his gutsy performance.

POMMEL HORSE

The bronze medalist of the 2002 Worlds, Kashima, could not advance to the finals due to yesterday's performance (two falls). In place of him, Kasamatsu hit his routine, including a 360 degree kehre which had been unsteady in recent competitions, and won the first title since his shoulder surgery last year. Tomita hit his routine, too, and received second. Third place went to Podgorny, with a little wobble in his dismount.

RINGS

Tomita had a steady execution and a nailed landing. Tomita picked up a swing of the rings after his back uprise to handstand just before his dismount. but he showed what was the world-class performance. Krylov of Russia dismounted with layout double-double to place second. His execution was not solid enough to catch up with Tomita. America's Young performed very cleanly, and hit layout full-in dismount to earn third.

VAULT

Russia's Krylov showed a piked Tsukahara double but he crashed on the mat. Young did not show a high level of difficulty (layout Kasamatsu full and layout Cuervo full), but he was very confident on this event and won the title. Kasamatsu hit "round-off, half-on, layout Cuervo full) for his first vault, but the low start value of his second vault (layout Kasamatsu) gave him a low score and put him in third. On this event, only five gymnasts competed.

PARALLEL BARS

Podgorny showed a gorgeous routine (Belle, Morisue, and Healy to double front with a half twist), and won this event. Korea's Yang hit "Tippelt to tucked front(E)" to earn second, the sole medal for Korea at this meet. Tomita tied with Yang but he had a little break on his piked Belle.

HORIZONTAL BAR

Tsukahara performed very consistently, and hit his Kolman to win. With his title, each Japanese gymnast except for Nishimura, who competed for exhibition, won an apparatus final title. Kashima received second with beautiful execution. America's Thornton hit a Kolman and piked stalder to hop full, and earned third. the Asian Games Champion, Yang, fell on his winkler salto (layout Jaeger with full twist), and lost the chance to earn another medal.